Christmas Around the World: A Christmas Play

BACKGROUND:

We live in Canada (loads of snow). My daughter came up to me near
Christmas when she was about 4 and told me she felt very sorry for all the
people in Australia and Maui (we'd been to Maui, but I'm not sure how she came
up with Australia).

I asked her why and she responded, "because they don't get
Christmas."

"Sure they do honey!"

"No they can't mommy... They don't have any snow."

I explained that Christmas wasn't about celebrating snow... It was about
celebrating Jesus' birth. In fact, there was no snow where Jesus was
born!

SCRIPT:

Written by Leanne Guenther

I think this could easily be expanded into a simple play. You could
start with two people dressed in cozy warm clothes -- mom and two children
having a similar conversation (or you could expand to a mom, a dad and a child
and give some of the mom lines to the dad)

Child 1 (looking sad), "Mom, we can't have Christmas this year"

Mom (looking puzzled), "Why not dear?"

Child 2 , "Because it makes me sad that we get to have Christmas and
people in Hawaii don't"

Mom (suppressing a giggle), "Um, why wouldn't people in Hawaii get to
have Christmas?"

Both children together (emphatically), "Because they don't have any
snow!"

Mom, "You don't need snow to have Christmas!" (you can add,
"in fact, there was no snow where Baby Jesus was born")

Depending on how large your group is, you could have
the group singing this song dress up in Hawaiian outfits and do a bit of a hula
dance (check out our luau Activities) or you could
just have a few of the group members in Hawaiian outfits move to the front
during this part.

Both children (look at each other with a really happy expression),
"Neat!!!"

Mom, "Wonderful! NOW we can have Christmas, right?"

Children contemplate for a second and then Child 2 looks sad

Child 2, "No... I don't think so" (big sigh)

Child 1 looks curious, mom looks flustered

Mom, "Now why not!!"

Child 2, "Think of all the people who don't speak English... You can't
have Christmas if you can't speak English!"

Mom (semi-curious as to the rational behind this one... half grinning),
"And why can't people have Christmas if they can't speak English?"

Child 2, "well... You couldn't say merry christmas..."

Child 1, "or happy new year..."

Child 2, "or sing Christmas Carols..."

Child 1, "Yeah! you couldn't even sing Silent Night. What
would Christmas be without Silent Night!?"

Both children, "You can't have Christmas without Christmas Carols!"

Mom, "You can sing Silent Night in any language!"

... Then sing

Multi-lingual Silent Night (pick a few lines from
various languages) The ones with Real Audio Files help a lot with the
pronunciation - you don't have to do too many lines to get the point across, nor
do you have to do too many languages. (The Boney M christmas tape has it
sung in a German/English medley.)

You can add this right
before THE END for a good Christian finale (I
made the first version for schools where a strong religious message isn't
allowed... here's the rest of the
play:

Child 1, "And you need to know the story!"

Child 2, "Oh yes, don't forget the story."

Mom, "Which story is that?"

Have someone read the Meaning of Christmas
LUKE 2:8-12 I
split it up a bit so you can share the reading... If you want to show the kids
how to read it let them watch a Charlie Brown Christmas first!! I'd dress
the children who read this up like shepherds or angels.

Instead of We Wish You a Merry Christmas or Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas, sing "Hark the Herald
Angels Sing" or "Joy
to the World" (I love the Boney M "Mary's Boy Child" song,
but their Christmas tape also has Hark the Herald Angels sing on it *grin*)